Saturday, April 23, 2011

We don't need air traffic controllers

WSJ article on sleeping air traffic controllers:
Controller fatigue is obviously a major factor. The FAA has known about the problem for decades but has repeatedly swept it under the rug. Finally, on April 17, the FAA implemented changes to scheduling practices that will allow controllers more time for rest between shifts. But the changes only address part of the fatigue problem. And they don't face up to the reason for the FAA's repeated failures to deal with the issue.
People are unnecessary to the task. Video games perform the same stunts billions of times daily and rarely crash.

My suggestion?

Give each pilot a $200 Android tablet. Then call me and I will put together an open source distributed solution to traffic routing. Do I need government funding for the task? No, Silicon Valley is having a boomlet solving just these types of problems on the Android, there is plenty of money.

I would add Bitcoins to the mix so airlines could by airspace on their own priority schedule. 

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